Thursday, March 31, 2016

snowy day (a garden update of sorts) and a finished sweater

What a title, right? Well, that's the way it is in Colorado. We've had 70 degree days in the past two weeks, and then later (that afternoon) a blizzard comes through. Makes it hard to work in the yard! I know, though, that little bits of yard and garden work now will be well worth it - anything planted now, like grass seed and snap peas, will come up lush when the sun finally takes over for good. It's a great chance to get a jump on the weeds, too, before the summer sun beats down.

one of those March blizzards

Early this week, I spent a couple of hours cleaning up a couple of small beds and cutting back my sage, ornamental grass, and bee balm. Wow, I guess I skipped a lot of gardening last year; my sage was a shambles. Looking through the photos tagged "garden" makes me realize that my shed and garden fence both need some love. April and May are the months to do that, while I'm itching to plant, but can't quite yet. I'll let you know how that works out. Here's a picture from a few years past, to remind myself it is worth the work:

As for the knitting, like many of my Ravelry companions can attest, I've got too many projects on needles! When I'm teaching, I'm often asked how many projects I've got on needles, and I can sometimes go through my project page on Ravelry and count for them... "This one needs Finishing; this one, I'm writing; this one needs another skein of yarn; I'm not sure if I like this one..." etc. A few months ago, I went through the "In Progress" set of my projects and marked some of them as "Hibernating" in order to feel a little less overwhelmed, and to admit to myself that I might never finish these projects. I was reminded that I had a sweater that I'd begun in 2013 as a knit-along with a friend who was new to knitting, and a friend who likes help with sweaters. Of course, I was far ahead for the body of the sweater. However, once they got the hang of it and my attention shifted, they both surpassed me and I put it aside. All it needed was sleeves! And it would be nice to use those needles for something else. As a bonus, between then and now, I've done a couple of sweaters with picked-up sleeves and decided to finish it that way.

The yarn is scrumptious, and the shawl collar is cozy! But to be honest, I'm not sure I'm going to wear this color. Ever. And one sleeve does not match - same dye lot, but apparently different spots in the kettle. I am thinking of overdying it, but not sure what color; I would hate to lose the cabling to dark yarn. Have you ever dyed a finished knit??

2 comments:

My mother dyed a hand knit sweater that got put in the back window of a car and was sun bleached. The faded area didn't dye as dark as the rest of the sweater. Your knitting is fabulous. The sweater is well worth doing whatever it takes to make you want to wear it.

Wow -- that cabling is gorgeous! We need a full shot of the whole sweater LOL! I've never over-dyed a sweater -- ok, I've never dyed anything haha. Have you ever tried to shrink a sweater? I have one that's too big and I was thinking of washing it in hot water and putting it in the dryer for a little bit. Does that work? Would it go to far??? I'm chicken! Good luck with your dying!!!